RE: cigar lake may be back on line....This is part of lengthy article written on Oct. 24 about Cameco, please note the water permit problem;
How Serious Is the Cigar Lake Supply Problem?
“This is probably going to set Cameco back much more than a year,” Bambrough predicted. Last spring, he had speculated in another interview about how the uranium price might be affected if Cigar Lake were delayed more than was then anticipated. “It was supposed to do 18 million pounds a year by 2010,” he explained. “We’re losing seven million pounds out of 2008. We’re probably going to lose another 11 million pounds in 2009.”
When will Cameco know they can mine Cigar Lake ? “Maybe, it will just be starting in 2010 if they figure it out,” Bambrough said. “If they figure out the whole new plan – the problem is you’ve got to deal with water permits.” Because Cameco may have to add a processing facility to be able to handle the increased flow rate, the company may have to apply for new water permits.
“Right now, they’re only permitted to process about 500 cubic meters of water an hour,” he pointed out. Cameco Chief Executive Jerry Grandey told analysts on Monday the water was flowing at 1500 cubic meters an hour. “Basically, they’ve got to go and apply for permitting to get processing in place to handle that extra water flow,” Bambrough said. “We don’t know what the flow rate is ultimately going to be. They don’t even know how contaminated the water is going to be and what processing needs to be done. They’ve got a big water problem to deal with.”
All of this will take longer than many expect. “They’re going to have to come up with a new plan and a new way to process it,” Bambrough predicted. “It’s not just about going back and rehabilitating this one area and continuing business as usual. They’re going to keep trying to work it. But in order to work it, they’re going to have to de-water it, which means they have to get water permits and put in a facility to process the water.”
As uranium and other miners have explained to us, mining is a difficult business. “In almost all metals, mining is being pushed to the limit,” Bambrough observed. “When you push things to the limit, when you push equipment to the limit and you’re going into uncharted frontiers, in terms of new depths in mining and new techniques, you’re going to run into problems.”
Maybe a permit for ice cubes ??